


Box of 64

by notjustmom



Series: Doodahs and Whatnots [20]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Established Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Fluff, M/M, bit of angst, domestic fluffiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-09-27 21:32:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10051538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: Imagine a world where Sherlock goes into a toy store and buys Rosie a box of 64 crayons...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scrub456](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrub456/gifts).



> This turned out a bit differently than I thought, may add a bit with Sherlock and Rosie. And there is a poisonous plants colouring book, I have one, just haven't coloured in it yet:
> 
> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29499115-the-wicked-plants-coloring-book

Sherlock normally let John do the shopping for Rosie, but as he was returning home from reviewing another tedious pile of paperwork with Lestrade, he passed by a toy store that had a Crayola display, and he suddenly remembered his first big box of crayons. 64. With the built-in-sharpener. He steeled himself to deal with the general public, put on his 'charming' face and went inside the shop.

An hour later, he managed to escape with only two bags of 'educational toys' including two boxes of 64, with the built-in-sharpener. He remembered hearing the salesman chuckle as Sherlock rolled his eyes at the box of 120, and muttered, "ridiculous, who needs 120 crayons..." He was going to only buy one box for Rosie, and leave, but the man who helped him, a grandfather of two little girls, "...not so little now, I suppose, outgrown crayons, into computers..." opened a box for him and let him take a deep breath in, and Sherlock had a memory, a flash of Eurus and him, colouring together, sharing a box of -

"Sir? Are you quite all right?"

Sherlock blinked and nodded. "I'll take two." And of course, he needed paper, and colouring books, and he hadn't seen all the beautiful pop-up books, including one about bees. He knew he would have to hide them away until Rosie was out of her "snatch and destroy" phase, but they were too lovely to pass up. The salesman nodded, sympathizing, "it's so difficult not to give her absolutely everything, isn't it?"

"Yes. Yes it is. Logically, I know she doesn't need all this, she won't even remember -"

"But you will, won't you, sir?"

Sherlock met his eyes and nodded. "I never forget anything about her."

"Lucky to have you for a father -"

"I'm just her godfather -"

"You are more than that, I can tell, Mr. -?"

"Sherlock, please." Sherlock removed his glove and offered him his hand. The man blinked, but managed to hide the glint of recognition in his eyes and shook his hand. 

"Now, what are her favourite toys...."

 

John looked up from the paper and his jaw dropped. "You went to the shops?"

Sherlock put the bags down and rolled his eyes before kissing John with something a bit more than usual. "Just to the toy store. She needed crayons..."

"And half the store?" John grinned up at him.

"Well, her birthday is coming up, and Christmas, and Valentine's Day, and -"

John pulled Sherlock into his arms and held him for a long moment. "Did I tell you how much I love you today?"

"It's just crayons, John." Sherlock whispered against his lover's chest. 

"No. We both know how much more it is - that you love both of us as you do -"

"John?"

"Hmmm?" John murmured as he nuzzled Sherlock's neck.

"Will you colour with me?"

John looked into his glowing eyes and nodded. "Yes, love. You got the box of 64, didn't you?"

"One for us, and one for Rosie. They had bigger boxes, but -"

"Who needs more than 64?" John snarked.

"Exactly what I said," Sherlock smiled as he hopped up and pulled John out of his chair. "I got a few colouring books, they even had one on poisonous plants...what?"

"I love you." 

Sherlock bit his lip and nodded. "I love you, too, more than I could possibly ever tell you."

John's eyes glittered. "I know. Does it still have the -"

"Built-in-sharpener?" Sherlock pulled out a box and gave it to him.

John glanced down at the box in his hands, then looked back up at Sherlock and cleared his throat before speaking. "I never had a box. The biggest I ever had was 24."

Sherlock stopped short. "From now on, John Watson, we will only buy 64. You deserve nothing less." He took John into his arms and whispered,"you deserve nothing less than everything you want."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so...Rosie is up from her nap, time for her to 'play' LOL

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> took me a while, but I found a list of the 64 colours as they were in 2010...
> 
> Apricot, Asparagus, Bittersweet, Black, Blue, Blue Green, Blue Violet, Brick Red, Brown, Burnt Orange, Burnt Sienna, Cadet Blue, Carnation Pink, Cerulean, Chestnut, Cornflower, Dandelion, Forest Green, Gold, Goldenrod, Granny Smith Apple, Gray, Green, Green Yellow, Indigo, Lavender, Macaroni and Cheese, Magenta, Mahogany, Mauvelous, Melon, Olive Green, Orange, Orchid, Pacific Blue, Peach, Periwinkle, Plum, Purple Mountain’s Majesty, Raw Sienna, Red, Red Orange, Red Violet, Robin’s Egg Blue, Salmon, Scarlet, Sea Green, Sepia, Silver, Sky Blue, Spring Green, Tan, Tickle Me Pink, Timberwolf, Tumbleweed, Turquoise Blue, Violet, Violet Red, White, Wild Strawberry, Wisteria, Yellow, Yellow Green and Yellow Orange.
> 
> From http://blog.powersof10.com/?p=2931

Sherlock sat across from Rosie at her little table. John was always amazed how the lean, lanky frame seemed to melt and fold into the tiny chair, and he tried not to laugh.

"Rosie."

She looked up and rubbed her eyes. 

"These are crayons. You draw with them. On paper. Preferably not on a wall or a floor or on the fridge or my violin case..."

She rolled her eyes at him and nodded.

"All right, then. Just setting ground rules."

She smiled and waited.

"Now, I have all these colouring books. Let's see...Hello Kitty, uh-uh, he thought you might like princesses...no? Uhm, Peppa Pig...no. Hmm...this one?"

She had pointed at the poisonous plant book and grinned innocently.

Sherlock turned at John's laughter and shrugged. "I had nothing to do with -"

John took another sip of tea, then put down his mug and walked over to the detective. "I know, love, she knows what she likes is all." He kissed the top of Sherlock's head then sat down next to him on the floor.

"Now...what colour? A green? There are so many...Forest Green, Yellow Green, not sure why they have a Green Yellow too...no? Hmmm Magenta? Ooh. Interesting choice."

Rosie looked up at Sherlock, and even at 2 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and a few hours short of a day, she knew he was cataloguing everything she did. She thought about tasting it, because she wanted to know what Magenta tasted like. He probably wouldn't have minded, she had seen him taste stranger things after all, but, this crayon business seemed important to him, so, she went ahead and simply smelled the crayon before she coloured the Aconite petals Magenta, even though she remembered him reading that old book to her...hmm maybe that Cornflower might have been a better choice...but when she glanced back up at him, he was smiling at her like she was something special, so she grinned back contentedly and she went back to colouring.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> for PatPrecieux...maybe not quite what you had in mind, but this is what came out. xoxox

They were curled up together on the couch later that evening, John running his fingers through Sherlock's hair as he considered their afternoon. Rosie had been entranced by all of the different colours and by Sherlock's intense focus on how she had accepted his gift, she had spent hours examining and smelling and yes, tasting a few colours just to be sure she wasn't missing anything. Once again, John was surprised, no, not surprised, exactly, just, grateful, uhm, no...whatever it was, he wondered, not for the first time at how easily the three of them had become a family, after everything had settled down to a degree of calm that none of them had truly experienced before. 

Even before the fall, life at Baker Street had never been what he thought of as tranquil, but now, a year after the reconstruction, life - the life he actually had had to fight for, the life he had to finally choose for himself, for Rosie, and for the man in his arms, was somehow peaceful.

"It's about time, isn't it?" Sherlock's voice rumbled quietly around him, as he sat up slowly, and blinked down at John.

"Too loud?" John murmured.

"No, it's fine. You realise we were due. For some peace. Finally." Sherlock looked at him in that way that made him wonder -

"Don't. We can't go back and fix it, you know that. There is nothing to fix, John, we aren't broken anymore."

John sat up and touched Sherlock's jaw before kissing him softly, then pressing against him, holding on to him as if he were a bird that could fly away. Sherlock nuzzled against his neck and sighed. "I got you a present, wanted to give it to you once we got Rosie to sleep. Be right back."

Sherlock came back with their box of crayons and a colouring book.

"You got me a Gray's Anatomy Coloring Book?" John gigglesnorted as he flipped through the pages. All of the bones, muscles, organs, systems, everything that had taken him so long to learn boiled down to less than one hundred and fifty pages. He closed the book and wished suddenly that he could express himself more easily, simply, without it feeling like an enormous event. Sherlock was fiddling with the box of crayons, not paying him any attention, just picking up the different colours and smiling to himself.

"Colour with me?" John suggested quietly, in as normal a voice as he could, hoping Sherlock wouldn't deduce how much it meant to him to have what they had. Sherlock's eyes met his then, and John knew the feeling was completely mutual.

"Where do we start?" 

John glanced up at the skull on the mantelpiece and grinned, "At the top, naturally."

"Of course...hmmm....no Aubergine, I suppose Plum will have to do..."

"Purple? You're going to colour a skull Purple?" John snorted.

Sherlock rolled his eyes and muttered, "not 'Purple' it's Plum, and no, I'm not going to colour it, you are." He handed John the Plum crayon as solemnly as a nurse had once handed him a scalpel, and John shook his head as he began filling in the empty spaces, as meticulously as he had once sewn sutures.

"I love you."

Sherlock had picked up the 'Wicked Plants' book and was working on the Water Hemlock, shading the leaves a bright orange. "I love you, too. Ethiopian or Thai?"

"Hmmm...Ethiopian."

"Your regular?"

"Yeah. Can you hand me a Yellow?"

"Yellow Green or Yellow Orange or just plain Yellow?"

"Just plain Yellow, I think."

Their fingers touched as Sherlock laid the crayon in John's outstretched hand and they paused, for a moment. 

"Thank you, Sherlock."

"You're welcome, John."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Box of 64 (art)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10700802) by [marathecactupus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/marathecactupus/pseuds/marathecactupus)




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